Shipping vessel’s captain killed by his crew: report

By Shih Hsiu-chuan / Staff Reporter

A Taiwanese ship’s captain was reportedly killed by his Indonesian crewmembers, after his family had lost contact with him for three days, the Central News Agency (CNA) quoted the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center (TECC) in New Delhi, India, as reporting.

CNA said in the report that Wang Tien-hsing (王天興), father of the captain, Wang Yao-chung (王耀彰), confirmed last night that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had conveyed the news of his son’s death to the family at 6:50pm.

According to the CNA report, the TECC had learned from Indonesian authorities that Wang Yao-chung of the King Hai Hsiang No. 3, registered in Pingtung County’s Donggang Township (東港), had been killed by Indonesian fishermen.

The Taiwanese fishing boat was found by Indian Coast Guard vessels on the high seas between Sri Lanka and the Andaman Islands at about 2pm yesterday and was directed by the Indian authority’s vessels to a nearby harbor, Taiwan’s Representative to India Ong Wen-chyi (翁文琪) was quoted by CNA as saying.

Ong did not identify the location of the wharf where the boat would be moored.

Indian Coast Guard personnel boarded the Taiwanese ship and were told by Indonesian crewmembers that they killed Wang and threw his body into the sea, the report said.

Ministry spokesman James Chang (章計平) said earlier yesterday that the ministry had called on the Indonesian government to help locate the boat because it lost contact with the vessel on Monday.